Consecrations of U.S. Bishops by Episcopal Officials Overseas Challenge Church Hierarchy

By GUSTAV NIEBUHR

Published: February 2, 2000

In a highly unusual challenge to the Episcopal Church's leadership, the top officials of two Anglican church provinces overseas, in Africa and Asia, have consecrated two conservative American priests as bishops to minister to Episcopalians who feel alienated from the denomination in the United States.

The action, which took place in Singapore on Saturday, was taken without the knowledge or approval of the church's top officer, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold III. Bishops are elected by their own diocese and confirmed by the church's other bishops. The consecrations, which might be likened to a county sheriff's appointing a deputy to work in another county, led to questions as to who would recognize the men as having the authority of bishops.

A statement released by the two new bishops said the consecrations were intended to help ''lead the Episcopal Church back to its biblical foundations,'' from which some conservatives say it has strayed, especially over such questions as the support by some liberal bishops for ordaining gay men and lesbians.

The action represents a serious breach of protocol within the worldwide Anglican Communion, an association of 38 church provinces with more than 70 million members. The Episcopal Church is the communion's American member. Bishop Griswold, in a letter to his church's bishops, said he learned of the consecrations on Monday and was ''appalled by this irregular action.''

The two priests consecrated are the Rev. Charles H. Murphy III, a parish rector in Pawley's Island, S.C., and the Rev. John H. Rodgers Jr., a retired seminary president from Ambridge, Pa. The ceremony took place in St. Andrew's Cathedral in Singapore, led by Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of the Province of Rwanda and Archbishop Moses Tay of the Province of Southeast Asia.

Because the consecration was done outside Episcopal Church procedures, the two men hold an ''irregular but valid'' status, as prelates whose authority is not recognized within the area they have said they will work, according to R. William Franklin, dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University.

He said the two bishops could only be recognized for work within the Episcopal Church by the church's General Convention, its legislative body, which is to meet this summer. ''I think the General Convention could pass a resolution condemning this action,'' Dean Franklin said.

The consecrations come at a time of tension within the Anglican Communion, particularly between older churches like the Episcopal Church and the Church of England, which once sent thousands of missionaries abroad, and the new, rapidly growing churches in Africa and Asia.

Amid these tensions, the Episcopal Church -- itself deeply divided over issues of human sexuality -- has become a target for criticism from some bishops in Africa and Asia who have said that some of their counterparts in the United States and Britain have become overly influenced by permissive Western society.

Anglicanism traces its roots to the Church of England's breaking ties with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530's. The communion lacks any central authority like a pope.

Dean Franklin described the Singapore consecrations as ''absolutely contrary to Anglican polity.''

Another authority on the church, the Rev. Ian T. Douglas, a professor of world mission and global Christianity at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., said the issue was less one of sexuality than of power, as a long-term shift takes place between the older Anglican churches and the growing, newer ones. ''Specifically,'' he said, ''who decides what is Anglican identity and what is Anglican authority?''

The consecrations are provocative in their timing, coming only a month before the primates, the top leaders in each of the church provinces, are to meet in Portugal.

Bishop Griswold sent a letter to his fellow primates saying he was ''profoundly disturbed'' by what he called ''the caricature'' of the Episcopal Church as disregarding Scripture and doctrine, contained in a statement by participants in the consecration ceremony.

The statement described the 2.4-million-member church as being in crisis and suffering a decline in membership. It said the consecration was not political, but was taken ''to re-establish the unity that has been violated by the unrebuked ridicule and denial of basic Christian teaching.''

Both men remained in Singapore yesterday and declined comment through an American associate.

Bishop Murphy is a founder of First Promise, a three-year-old organization that says it is ''working for either the reformation of the Episcopal Church or the emergence of an alternative, orthodox Anglican Province.'' Bishop Rodgers, who served 17 years as dean and president of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, has been a leader in the Episcopalian ''renewal'' movement.